Ash to Ash
by WrenWinterSong
Summary: QLFC Season 5 Round 1 - A year after the war is over, there is still healing to be done. Score: 10/10.


**Author's Note:** This story is written for the fifth season of QLFC. Yes, I couldn't resist and joined again this year! I'm still Beater #2 for the Falmouth Falcons, and for the first round this year, I had to write my fellow beater's NOTP, Harry/Ginny.

Optional prompts: (colour) sky blue, (dialogue) "I'm happier than I've ever been before.", and (quote) The problem with people is they forget that most of the time it's the small things that count. - Theodore Finch, All the Bright Places. Word count: ~1770.

This is for Paige, and though she may dislike one of my favourite couples, I love her for it this time. Glad being such opposites has worked in our favour!

* * *

 _I need a place to be alone. A place to be alone. Any place to be alone._

Harry paced in front of the blank space of wall, the chattering voices rising from the grounds and through the windows only driving him to concentrate harder on his thoughts. After an entire year of living like a recluse in his home and dodging reporters on the rare chance he dared to venture out, he had finally managed to go out to dinner in Muggle London without word spreading to the Wizarding World and creating an oddly dressed mob right outside the doors. He had finally felt like himself again. Then plans for the anniversary for the Battle of Hogwarts started, and here he was, hiding out on the seventh floor of Hogwarts and desperately thinking of any way to escape.

On his third time passing in front of the wall, Harry prepared himself for disappointment. He had no reason to believe that the Room of Requirement hadn't been damaged beyond repair during the Fiendfyre incident, but his only other option was attempting to sneak out the gate and Apparate home. The latter idea was tempting, especially since he'd already fulfilled his promise to Kingsley and Professor McGonagall by giving a speech in front of all the current Hogwarts students and every single guest invited to the anniversary, but he couldn't bring himself to show the two of them that much disrespect. Instead, he'd wandered to the seventh floor in hopes that the Room of Requirement still had enough magic left to be a sanctuary once more.

Nothing happened for a moment, but Harry waited, looking for anything to do besides returning to the Great Hall. Then the familiar door shimmered into existence. The weight of the day floated off of Harry's shoulders as he smiled at the door and disappeared inside.

Then he stopped. The door clicked closed behind him, leaving him in the shadows of a large room lit only by a single oval window opposite the door. Through the glass, all Harry could see was the bit of sky painted a picturesque blue, the exact colour a sky should be. There was very little else to look at. The stone floor and walls stood grey and orderly, not a mismatched rock among them to distract the eye. There weren't even any dust specks floating in the sunlight.

Harry didn't bother lighting his wand but simply leaned his back against the nearest wall and sunk to the floor. The soft thunk echoed about the empty space.

This was an easy place to be alone, to lose oneself, to lose time. One moment, Harry had closed his eyes to listen to the silence, and the next, the door creaked open.

Harry jumped to his feet and yanked his wand from his pocket, the surprise kicking awake his instincts until the sunlight reached across the room and shimmered across Ginny's hair. "So this is where you've been hiding," she said with a smirk. She glanced at the wand clutched at his side and pointed towards her, but she turned away to shut the door without her grin faltering.

Harry took the moment to compose himself, his pulse returning to normal much faster than it had a few months ago. He replaced his wand to its pocket and brushed out the wrinkles on his robes as he asked, "So how did you find me?"

"You disappeared," she said and, before Harry could question the response, plucked from her pocket a bit of folded parchment that he recognised immediately as the Marauder's Map. "I hear only this room can do that."

"How did you…?" Harry patted his pockets where he remembered stowing away the map that morning. The only reason he had use of it anymore was when he missed the girl in front of him now and tracked her dot across the sometimes faulty lines of corridors and rooms. After the battle at and rebuilding of Hogwarts, not everything lined up anymore. Little dots walked through walls all the time, but even when Ginny's name sat inside the boys' lavatory when she was in charms, it made her feel a little bit closer. The only reason he'd brought the map along today was because it didn't feel right to go to Hogwarts without it—and maybe also to keep an eye out for reporters—but he hadn't thought to fear it being stolen. "Did you… did you pick my pockets?"

Ginny shrugged then sauntered over with the map held out for Harry to take. "Have you forgotten who taught me all about mischief?" she asked as Harry accepted the map and tucked it inside his robes. "That, and when it fell out of your pocket before you made your speech, I figured there were only a few hands you'd want finding it."

The map fluttered to the ground as soon as she spoke, and Harry passed a confused look from it to Ginny to his pocket. He stuck his hand deep inside until he felt his fingers reach the hole at the bottom. "Damn mice," he muttered, snatching the map from the ground and stuffing it into a holeless pocket. "We've got a bit of a rodent problem at Grimmauld Place."

"More than a bit, I'd say."

"Yeah, well, Ron and I spend most of our time at the office. Hard to take care of this kind of stuff when you're never home."

Harry felt the silence of the next moment as Ginny visibly swallowed any words about asking her parents or any number of his old schoolmates to take care of it. She'd learned that he preferred to take care of things himself, and though she'd told him what a noble idiot he was during the war, a small mice infestation seemed to not be worth the argument. Instead, a minute too late to be natural, she said, "You should borrow Crookshanks till the end of the year. I'm sure Hermione wouldn't mind."

"Just as I'm sure Ron would," Harry said with a scoff.

Ginny sighed. "He's got to win that cat over some time. I question her judgement for even fancying him in the first place, but at least she's got enough sense not to chose him over Crookshanks."

Harry chuckled but found that the uneasiness he'd felt all day was crawling back inside him. All the mingling and mourning of his fellow survivor's stood just outside that door. "So is this where you drag me back out there?" he asked.

"Hell no." Ginny shook her head and slumped her back against the wall like Harry had earlier. "I'd love a break from having to act polite while I'm told how sorry everyone is about Fred then asked how well you perform in bed in the same breath."

Relief flooded through him and released in a wide smile at Ginny's words. Perhaps he should have felt a bit more bothered that people were so curious about his love life, but honestly, since being with Ginny, he really couldn't have cared less. She probably gave any curious gossiper—and eavesdropping reporter—a sly remark that would turn up in the Prophet any day or month now, and they'd laugh as they read the twisted words that somehow proved they'd been married since 1996—either that or Harry's love affair with any one of the DA members. Depending on the reporter's mood, the story could go either way, and apparently, so could Harry.

"Have I ever mentioned that since you attack-snogged me after that Quidditch game, I'm happier than I've ever been before?" he asked.

"I assumed that, but the affirmation will never go unappreciated."

Both of them smiled then sat on the ground at the same time, and they stared out into the empty room for a silent handful of minutes. It was here that he really felt like the end of the war was being celebrated properly. Small moments like this had been so hard to come by for so long. The grandness of the anniversary gathering going on below was wonderful in its own way, but this was where the healing happened. This is where happiness could be found again. And that was what counted most, right?

Long after their shoulders had leaned against each other and their knees knocked together, Harry said, "Do you know what I just remembered? I told the room I needed a place to be alone. And you still managed to get it."

"It wasn't that hard," Ginny said. "I told the room to ignore whatever rubbish you said you needed it for it and to let me in no matter what."

"I didn't think the room worked that way."

"You forget that we've got a lot of history. After living here for nearly an entire school year, this place respects me a little more than it does you." Ginny grinned as she looked over at Harry, but he only smiled back for a few seconds before the emptiness pulled away his attention.

Of all the things that the Room of Requirement had been over the years, now it was gutted and mending, like so many after the war. "This place really has been through a lot, hasn't it?" he said.

Ginny nodded, her head falling against his shoulder as her gaze went out to the still expanse. "But it's better than it was." Harry's shoulder stirred beneath her temple, so she added, "I checked up on this place at the start of the year. It was Luna's idea, and even though she was convinced it was gone for good, Hermione came too. It appeared like normal, but we could only get it to give us this room, though it looked a lot worse then. Everything was covered—no, everything _was_ ash. Nothing else. Just giant piles of black dust that couldn't be cleared away by any spell any of us tried. I hadn't seen it since."

Harry stared at the stone floor, searching for any scorch marks or ash leftover, but there was nothing that he could see. "The room must be fixing itself. Maybe it can even be as good as it used to be."

"It'll get there," Ginny said. Her hand reached for his, and she tucked her fingers against his palm. "We all will."


End file.
